LINE OF DUTY POLICE SUICIDE

 

A “line of duty suicide” is any first responder (police officer, fire fighter, paramedic, dispatcher) suicide in which work-related psychological trauma, whether acute or cumulative, is a precipitant or significant contributor to the act of suicide.  We believe many suicides should be accepted by emergency services as a death sustained in the line of duty.

 

This topic has been taboo for too long.

 

Beginning December 1, 2009, a group of active and retired police officers, family survivors of law enforcement suicide, mental health experts, researchers and chaplains began an effort throughout the United States to raise awareness of "Line of Duty Suicides" in police work and for emergency responders.

 

For clarity of discussion, we have provided a definition of "Line of Duty Suicides" in the same way we discuss "line of duty shootings" or "line of duty heart attacks."  Ultimately, of course, it's our belief that they should simply be classified as line of duty deaths with heart attacks and strokes in the Public Safety Officers Benefits/Hometown Heroes Act. 

 

The question of whether suicides could be in the line of duty arose from a study in 2008 (the National Surveillance of Police Suicides by O'Hara, Violanti) that systematically tracked police suicides and came to some alarming conclusions.  Of the observations made in that study, one of the most disturbing was that, of 141 police suicides occurring in the US in 2008, not a single one had been attributed by a department to the stresses or traumas of the job.

 

In 2009, the same study found 143 police suicides--once again, police agencies denied that any were work related.  

 

To the contrary, a preliminary review of 2008 police suicides suggests and common sense alone dictate to anyone acquainted with law enforcement that even a minimal percentage are attributable to the job.  Any precision is difficult, unfortunately, because departments provide such scarce information, but there is reason to believe the number is higher.  If it is only one officer out of the 141/143, an injustice is being done to the deceased officer and family. 

 

Two irrefutable cases of trauma-related police suicides are those of Paul McCarthy and Michael Piggott (NYPD).  That's two, in the face of the many hidden by law enforcement.  How many will the skeptics need to "absolutely prove" the reality that law enforcement trauma can lead to PTSD and then suicide.  Ten?  100?  1,000?  How many more survivors of law enforcement suicide--spouses and children--will we leave behind, shunned by the very departments and public that owe them so much?

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Why do we hide a suicide or its cause?  If the brakes on a police car fail and an officer dies, should we cover that up as well?

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There's a double standard in law enforcement.  When an officer develops PTSD and depression because of work-related trauma, becomes suicidal and points a gun at his head, he'll have no problem getting a pension for PTSD.  Once that same officer pulls the trigger, however, everything changes--there is no chance of it being found work related, regardless of his trauma history.

 

Bizarre?  Yes.  It is the consequence of a closely knit community in which new concepts are quickly screened out.  It is breaking through these difficult barriers that presents our greatest and most daunting challenge.

 

In order for a  death to be recognized as work related, departments rely on it having an exterior physical cause, such as an accident or assault.  Other reasons include heart attacks and strokes within 23 hours and 59 minutes after chasing a suspect ten feet.  There are no specific provisions, however, for a work-related death/suicide due to horrific psychological trauma.

WHY? 

 

Why do we hide a suicide or its cause?  If the brakes on a police car fail and an officer dies, should we cover that up as well?  

 

This is not the time to lay out the intricacies of how a psychological autopsy would be performed, which forms would be filled out and sent to whom, or any of that.  Even if we did, someone would change it down the road.  Instead, we are offering this page merely as a discussion-starter--for those willing to discuss something that no one has had the courage to discuss openly before.